Rio Tinto joins the push for indigenous recognition

Rio Tinto will today join the movement to recognise indigenous Australians in the Constitution.

RECOGNITION

Rio Tinto will today join the movement to recognise indigenous Australians in the Constitution, as it vows to mobilise its 20,000-strong workforce to build momentum for change.

The mining company’s Australian chief executive Andrew Harding said supporting the campaign for recognition would ­deliver practical benefits to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. While a final model for changes had yet to be resolved, Mr Harding said the company was more concerned with the “principle” of recognition than what the final model would be.

“We know that there will be a robust discussion that is going to take place … over many, many months going forward and that is as it should be, it is a big issue for people to discuss, but we are standing firm on supporting the principle,” Mr Harding told The Weekend Australian.

He said the commitment built on the company’s 20-year record of engaging with indigenous people, after Rio “broke ranks” to ­acknowledge native title and work in active partnership with First Australians.

“The next step … has to be recognition in the Australian Constitution to allow us to take the relationship forward and allow us to continue the relationship that has led to a lot of practical outcomes,” he said.

Rio Tinto is one of the country’s largest private-sector employers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, employing more than 1600 indigenous workers and many others through contractors.

“We are not just joining the campaign, we are going to mobilise our employees, and not just the indigenous employees, we have got 20,000-plus employee in Australia and the intention is to better understand the history, better understand the present and better understand what this particular issue is all about.”

The latest corporate commitment to the campaign comes ahead of a critical meeting of indigenous leaders on Monday in Sydney aimed at achieving some consensus on the next steps towards a successful referendum that has been slated for 2017.

Recognise joint campaign ­director Tanya Hosch welcomed Rio Tinto’s commitment, which follows similar pledges from BHP Billiton, Telstra and Qantas.

Ms Hosch said she hoped the company’s commitment would inspire others to declare their formal support for change as well.

“It is an important part of building momentum and really helping to raise awareness,” she said. “We should never under­estimate the importance of ­people having these conversations in whatever network, ­community, organisation or institutional framework that they come from.”